Still have Today
by MaximilianSkott
Summary: The last day before they head off to Beacon, Yang and Ruby spend what time they have left with their family, and get in some last minute training to.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter one: A Late Start

 _At the bottom of the bottle lay not the answer, but the question. And that question is, why did I drink this? If you remember the answer, then you go get another bottle. Repeat the process til you don't remember the answer, and preferably the question._

"Words of wisdom to live by," Taiyang said to himself while he fished a beer out ofrefrigerator, remembering the personal philosophy that his brother-in-law, Qrow, practiced. He stared at the bottle for a moment, mulling over those words before shaking his head and whispering, "Can't say that I've ever been much of a wise man though."

He walked back over to the kitchen table where he had been for most of the morning, drawing away in his sketchbook, something he did whenever he was bored or needed to clear his thoughts. Considering that there was already a few empty bottles near the sketchbook, and one to soon join it, he was leaning towards reason two. Settling back into his chair, he started to flip through the book to look over some of his recent rough sketches. There were a few doddles of the Grimm, some vague shapes of wildlife here and there, and a comic strip of Zwei chasing a large Beowolf up a tiny tree.

"Hey Zwei, I think you might like this," he said as he lowered the book under the table. Zwei, who was next to his master's feet and currently preoccupied with a rather tasty bone, looked up at the drawing and barked in approval.

"Heh, knew you would like it," Taiyang said as he brought the sketchbook back up, thinking about what to draw next. It didn't take him very long, for within a few moments his pencil was flying across the paper. About fifteen or so minutes later he had his next drawing partially done. It was of his two daughters, Ruby and Yang. In it Yang had Ruby in a tight bear hug; Yang was grinning from ear to ear while Ruby was grimacing in pain. He could feel a smile creeping on his face as he felt his chest grow lighter. Placing the pencil down and picking the bottle up, he tilted the chair backwards onto two feet and propped his feet on the table. He opened the bottle and took a modest swig of it as he started to reminisce about the events that had unfolded last night.

Ruby had come home later than usual that night, and was practically bouncing with excitement. Figuring that she had finally met a boy, Taiyang was about to ask his name when Ruby started rambling off the events that had happened to her. After multiple renditions, three or so quick games of charades, and one liberal use of his hand to the back of her head later, he was able to piece together what happen. Ruby was in the middle of a dust shop robbery, she fought off the would be robbers, and her skill with the scythe impressed Professor Ozpin so much that he would allow her to enroll in Beacon immediately as long as her parent signed off on it. It took Taiyang a moment to process the information while looking over the permission form, looking from Ruby to the form and back again.

Finally, it dawned on him that his youngest daughter would begin her training as a huntress. He couldn't help the smile that started to spread across his face or the tears welling up at the corners of his eyes. He looked down at Ruby, and in one quick motion he scooped her up into a bear hug and the pair started blabbering back and forth about the whole situation. Afterwards, when the two calmed down, she asked if she could go spend the night and the next day at Qrow's so she could get some last minute practice in.

Taiyang agreed to it, but first he wanted to take a measurement of her height at the kitchen doorway. It was a family tradition of theirs to measure each of the girls' heights at both their birthdays and major events/ accomplishments in their lives. Yang's was measured about three weeks ago when she found out she was accepted at Beacon (came up to five feet eight inches.) Ruby came up to about five feet two inches, just an inch taller than when she turned fifteen. She asked him not mark the measurement yet because she wanted to surprise Yang on their way to Beacon. He readily agreed to that, signed her formed, and kissed her on the forehead before she could dash out the door to her uncle's house. Looking back on it now, it was astounding that they didn't wake Yang up with all the racket they were causing. Which reminded him…

"Hey Zwei, could you do me a solid," he asked, snapping from his reminiscing. The little dog poked his head out from underneath the table and let out a bark to let his master know he was listening.

"It's almost eleven and that lazy bum still isn't outta bed yet. I need you to go take care of this problem," Taiyang said, well, more like dictated to the little dog. Zwei shook his head with a look on his face that shouted 'why me?'

"Because the last time I tried to wake her up, I got socked in the jaw for my troubles that's why," he said, figuring that what the look was about. He thought for a moment, then added, "The usual should work; breathe in her face, pull the covers off, cold nose to the middle of the back. Worked every time so far."

Letting out a loud snort, Zwei bounded out of the kitchen, through the living room, and up the stairs. Taiyang closed his eyes and started counting, "Three…two…one." Right at the one, a shriek came from upstairs, followed by loud thump.

"Works every time," He said to himself, a grin spreading across his face. He was so satisfied with the results that he either didn't notice, or didn't care, about the brisk, noisy footsteps making their way down the stairs, through the living room, and into the kitchen. Nor did he notice or care about the hand that yanked the back of his chair and sent him tumbling to the kitchen floor. He opened his eyes just in time to see his older daughter, Yang, drop Zwei right onto his chest.

"Oomph! Good morning to you to sunshine. How'd ya sleep?" he asked as he picked Zwei off his chest, who was giving him the 'I knew this was a bad idea,' look. Yang responded with what looked like a half-hearted attempt to flip him off that she lost interest in half way through the motion. While he was picking himself and his chair off the floor, he heard Yang asked from behind the fridge door ask, "Where's the noodles?"

"Bottom shelf," he replied. She muttered out a quick thanks and shambled from the refrigerator to the microwave. Taiyang couldn't help but to chuckle a little at the sight of Yang trying to move around in her groggy state. She must have heard him because she turned around to glare at him.

"Something funny, _old man_?" she asked, attempting to sound and look irate. This…didn't have the effect she was hoping for. Unless said effect was Taiyang doubled over in his chair, gripping the edges of the table for support so he didn't fall to the floor again. If that was her intent, then she passed with flying colors. Grumbling, she turned her attention back to her food and started to make herself some coffee while she waited. Meanwhile, Taiyang was making an honest effort to calm down, but every time he was near his goal the image of Yang's face popped right back into his head, sending him into another laughing fit.

"Are you finish yet?" Yang asked, clearing a spot out at the table. Taiyang took a few deep breaths as he cleared his mind, calming down enough to where he could speak again. He looked up at her with an audacious grin on his face and asked, "Soooooo, how come you didn't tell anyone that you was auditioning for a part in a zombie movie?"

Yang's eyes moved from her father, to her bowl, to her cup, and back to her father again while she was figuring out what the cost/benefit ratio would be if she flung one of the items at his head. Deciding that she would rather have the meal in her stomach as opposed to all over his head, she ignored him and started eating, or in this case inhaling, her food.

"Can you even taste that," he asked. She took a quick break and said, "What, I'm hungry."

"Yeah, I can see that. So I guess I should pick up a trough when I go grocery shopping again," he quipped. Ignoring that last statement, Yang motion to the clutter on the table. Taiyang shrugged his shoulders, saying, "It's my day off today, so I figured I do a little drawing. Haven't got much of a chance to for a while now."

"Not that," she said. She pointed towards the bottles, asking, "Little _early_ for that, don'tcha think?"

"What? Five o'clock was only eighteen hours ago," he said with a grin, hoping to drop the issue. Instead, Yang shot him a deadpan expression, causing him to respond with a half-hearted shrug. She sighed and shook her head, asking, "Am I gonna wind up a functioning alcoholic one day?"

"Alright kid, two things. One, it's only a few on my off day. Two, considering prior family history I would hold off on the straight edge tattoos for now," he said. Shaking her head again, she went back to eating her late breakfast/early lunch while he went back to his drawing. He was touching up the picture of his daughters hugging, trying to take away some of the roughness from it when heard Yang ask something through a mouth full of food.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," he said as he turned the sketchbook around to show her what he was working on, asking her, "Whatcha think?

"It's alright. Ruby looks pretty good, but I'm completely off model in that," she said as she looked the drawing over. Taiyang turned the sketchbook back to him so see what she was talking about. Looking at the drawing, he couldn't tell what was wrong with it. Yeah, it was a rough sketch, but he was still adding in the details, and he got most of the outline done. He looked up at her and asked, "So what exactly did I get wro…"

"Dude, my boobs are waaaaaay bigger than that," she said, cutting him off and causing his face to deadpan. Flashing him a toothy grin, she pointed down to her chest and said, "Well, I mean look at 'em. That drawing doesn't do them any justice."

"Duly noted," he said, reaching up to rub the corners of his eyes. Yang went back to finishing the contents of her bowl before making her way to the fridge again. She looked back over her shoulder and said, "Imma finish the leftovers off."

"I swear, I'm either gonna get a bill or Beacon is going to send you on extra missions just to cover your food costs," he said, shaking his head in amazement. Yang looked over the refrigerator door and replied, "But I'm a growing girl!"

"Growing girl… There are four man squads that don't eat as much as you," he said as she was pouring the last of the leftovers into her bowl. She looked down at her bowl, then over to her dad and said, "Sounds like they aren't even a quarter of a man then."

[Damn, that was good,] Taiyang thought to himself. He was routing through his brain for another quip he could fire at her but he was only drawing blanks. He threw up his hands and said, "I give. One point to Yang."

"Wahoo!" Yang shouted as she pumped her fist in the air, but then asked, "What are the points good for again?"

"To be determined at a later date," he said as he went back to touching up his drawing. Not even a moment later, Zwei started whining and dancing by his feet. Not looking up from his work, he asked, "Yang, could you let the little guy out?"

"Yeah, sure. Come on Zwei," she said as she loaded her bowl into the microwave. She walked over to the front door and yelled, "Come here boy!"

Zwei bounded over to the door and stopped in front of Yang, who currently was jingling the door handle while shouting over and over at the top of her lungs, "WANNAGOOUTSIDEBOYWANNAGOOUTSIDEBOYDOYADOYAHUHHUHHUH?"

"Would you **please** let the…" Taiyang began, getting rather annoyed by the inane chant from right across the room, but he was quickly cut off by Yang shouting, "OUT YA GO!"

Zwei bolted before the door was fully opened. Taiyang, still in mid-sentence, let out a sigh and finished, "Dog out. Tell me honey, do you do that to annoy the dog or just me?"

"Yes," Yang replied with her infuriating toothy grin.

[Welp, walked into that one,] he thought to himself as he returned to his drawing, hoping to actually make some forward progress. He stopped moments later when he heard Yang loudly slurping on her food. Looking up, he saw that she was already making significant headway into her second bowl.

"Where do you put it all?" he asked, astonish that she was almost done with her second bowl. Yang stopped eating and looked directly down at her chest, saying, "Well, I can think of a few places…"

"Really?" he replied in a gutturally groan. Yang shrugged her shoulders, saying, "Groan all you want, but these puppies are gonna help me snag your future son-in-law…. Or daughter-in-law, whatever you're cool with being added to the family tree."

It was like an automatic response that Taiyang's hand shot for his remaining beer. In one fluid motion, he drained the last of the bottle's contents and flung it across the room right into the trash can. Yang gave him a hearty golf clap, "Bravo. It's almost like you had a lot of practice with that."

"Well, having kids will do that for ya," he said.

"Speaking of which," Yang began, "Where's Ruby?"

"At Qrow's. She wanted to get some training in today," Taiyang said, pointing in the general direction of Qrow's home. Yang's face fell a little and she started to rub her arm absentmindedly. Looking a bit dejected, she finally said, "That's cool, I guess. I just thought we were going to spend the day together before I went off to Beacon is all."

"Well, she wanted to make sure that she was ready before she heads off to Beacon herself tomorrow," Taiyang said, hoping that would reassure Yang. What he forgot was that bit of information was something she wasn't supposed to find out till tomorrow, a fact that didn't dawn on him until he saw the expression of shock on her face. Racking his brain to see if there was any way he could back pedal from that revelation, the only thing he could think of was, [Damn it Tai, why?!]

Yang started to walk over to where he was sitting, asking along the way, "My little sister, Ruby, your daughter, is going to Beacon? Is that right?" Realizing that the damage had already been done, he nodded. Before he could think of anything else to say, Yang lifted him off the chair into a bone crushing bear hug.

"OHMYGODTHISISSOGREATMYBABYSISTERISGOINGTOBETRAININGTOBEAHUNTRESSATTHESAMETHISISAMAZING!" She shouted in glee, unaware that she had currently cut of her father's air supply.

"Honey. Ribs. Can't breathe," He managed to wheeze out. She released him and sent him crashing to the floor once she saw that his face was turning a reddish-purpley color. She scratched the back of her head in embarrassment and said, "Sorry pops. You alright?"

Taiyang gave her a shaky thumbs up while trying to regain his breath. Yang offered him a hand up to his chair. After he was resettled she started pacing the floor, not bothering to restrain her excitement at the news. Even though he already had his moment with Ruby and enough time to properly process the news, you could feel the wave of enthusiasm sweeping over him again as it had the night before. One part because of the news, and the other because of his older daughter's reaction to said news.

"You're about as excited now as you were when you got the acceptance letter into Beacon…minus the fact that the front door is still on its hinges," Taiyang said, pointing towards the door in question. Yang looked behind her and shrugged, "Hey now, at least I helped you put it back on."

Taiyang was about to emphasize that she still tore a door down, but figured it was best to not belabor the point. Besides, he had another problem on his hands. Namely, he promised Ruby that he would let her be the one to surprise Yang with the good news, but that ship already set sail out of the harbor and well into open waters. So, doing what any good parent would do, he decided to resort to an old standby.

"Hey Yang, quit twirling like a twit for a few seconds and listen. I need a favor from you," he said. Yang did an about-face and took a bow, "I am at your beck and call milord."

"Smart ass. Anyways, I promised your sister that I wouldn't tell you about her getting into Beacon because she wanted to surprise you herself. So, surprise…" he said, a hint of sarcasm in his voice at the end. Yang crossed her arms and one of her hands moved up to stroke her chin in a mock thoughtful manner, pondering the implications of this request. Finally, she asked, "Soooo… what you're asking is for _me_ to lie for _you_ , am I reading this right?"

"Don't think of it as lying for my sake, think of it as more along the lines of lying for your sister," Taiyang said with a wicked grin.

"What?! Daddy lying to his own daughters?! Never!" Yang exclaimed, feinting shock. Taiyang waved off Yang's dramatics with an over exaggerated motion of his own, "Lying is second nature to parents. You should know this by now, and if not then you are a fool and I have failed you in my duties as a father."

"Well, I won't argue with one of those," Yang said.

"Good, then we agree you are indeed a fool," Taiyang replied, flashing his wicked grin again. Realizing that she had walked right into that one, she chose to ignore her father and went back to the thought of her and Ruby both starting at Beacon tomorrow. Could they end up on the same team, or even as partners? How did the team/partner process work? Was there some type of system, or was it left up to chance? Are there measures in place to keep family members from being teammates, or was it encouraged? While pondering on all this, it finally hit her that maybe she should ask the one person in the room that had already been through Beacon's training. Would he even tell her, or would he say that she would have to wait and see it for herself. Well, couldn't hurt to ask.

"Hey, old man, what's…" she began, but stopped quickly when she took in the sight in front of her. Her father had his chair balancing on its two back legs again while his feet were propped up on the table, one of his arms hanging off the back of the chair. He was looking over his shoulder towards the doorway with the girls heights, and even though she couldn't quite tell she had a feeling that he was looking at the top notches on both sides. This, combined with the bottles on the table, was a scene all too familiar to her. She started to walk towards her father, the anxiety growing in the pit of her stomach.

"Hey Dad, are you alright," she asked softly, placing a hand on the shoulder he was looking over. He turned to look up at her and said, "Well, as long as you don't tip my chair over again I should be fine."

"Dad, I'm serious," Yang said with a stern tone. Taiyang let out a low sigh and said, "I'm fine honey. Really. Just doing a little thinkin' is all."

"A few liens for your thoughts," she asked as she seated herself across from him. He let out a loud, slightly hollow laugh.

"I think you're overpaying for 'em kiddo," he said as he fell forward in his chair, placing the front two legs back on the ground.

"Eh, I've spent my money on worse," she replied. He should have known better by now that when she starts to worry like this there was no use in trying to brush it off. He'd remember being pretty similar in that regard when he was young.

"Look Yang, I already knew this day would come, sooner or later," he began, taking a deep breath while he gathered his thoughts, "I've made my peace with that. I knew that my girls, for one reason or another, would grow up to be huntresses, and in a way I wanted you girls to. It's one of the most fulfilling experiences you will ever have; new places to see and explore, new people to meet, while making the world a safer place to live. Yeah, it's one of the most dangerous careers on the planet, but you and your sister are tough, and I know you girls will make excellent huntresses. And you best believe if I wasn't **damn sure** you or your sister were ready, I wouldn't have let either of you step anywhere near that school. It's just that…I don't know… I had it somewhere."

With that he got up from the table and started pacing around the kitchen, something he did when he had something important to say but didn't have the right words to say it yet. Yang sat there quietly, not wanting to rush him. He finally stopped pacing and turned to face her. He took another deep breath and began again, "It's like… a paradoxical bomb of emotions went off in my brain and all the surviving cells are trying to figure out what happened. On the one hand, I practically bursting with pride and joy. Just… watching you two succeed is such a feeling that the only way I can describe it to you is that you'll understand it when you have kids of your own and are standing where I am right now. But, on the other hand, I'm anxious…no, that isn't the right word. Scared, that's it. Scared that something will happen to either you or Ruby. I already lost both of my wives, I don't… I can't imagine burying either of my daughters…"

"Dad,I…" Yang said, but was quickly cut off by Taiyang.

"Let me finish Yang. It's hard enough as it is," he said. He looked around the room as if he was looking, hoping for someone else to be there to help him. No such luck. He bit his bottom lip before he continued, "There is…a bit of guilt to. Like, if Summer… or even Raven were here now…I just know that they would be proud of you girls. But they…can't be here, for one reason or another. It's….I just feel like…that it isn't fair to you or your sister, ya know. Maybe… It's just… I don't know…"

Not waiting to hear the end, Yang got up and walked over to her dad, pulling him into a tight embrace as she buried her face in his chest. She felt him returned the embrace as he wrapped one arm around her back and placed his other hand on the back of her head. They stood there for a moment, letting the silence saying everything that needed to be said. She felt him plant a kiss on top of her head and heard him say, "Love you to Yang."

"Don't mention it dad," Yang said as she and Taiyang parted. He looked over his daughter's shoulder at the doorway again, saying, "I just thought I would have a little more time is all."

"Think you got all the time in the world until you start thinking about time," Yang said in a low and hushed tone, doing her best to sound like a sagacious old woman and causing her father to let out a chuckle.

"Nice to see that quote calendar Ruby got you is being put to good use," he said, lightly teasing her, "does it have a word of the day to?"

"Why yes, yes it does. Do you want to know what today's word is?" she asked, flashing that mischievous grin of hers. Knowing that he was going to regret it, he motion for her to continue. Somehow, her grin got even wider when she said, "Brevity."

"Ouch. That hurts the soul," he said, recoiling in mock pain. Yang waved it off as she walked over to the window to let some fresh air into the kitchen while Taiyang went back to the table to continue his sketching. He was thinking of what to draw next when he heard Yang ask from across the room, "So, whatcha up to today?"

"Yer looking at it," He replied. He looked up at Yang to ask, "Why, did you have something planned?"

"I do now. Wanna hear it?" she asked. He shook his head, "Not really, but let's hear it anyways."

"Good man. Anyhows, since Ruby bailed on me, I thought we could spend some quality father-daughter bonding time together with a few friendly sparing matches," she said, her eyes flashing red for a split second. A smirk started to spread across his face, knowing well and good how these _'friendly'_ sparing matches turned out. Still, he had to ask, "Why so eager? I figured that you would want to start your first day of school off fully rested and with a spring in your step."

"Oh, I'm sure that I'll still be springy by tomorrow," she replied as she moved towards the opposite side of the table, her eyes locking on to her father's. They locked themselves into a staring contest, neither one wanting to back down and both of them sporting the same cocky smirk. Feeling generous, and figuring that a good father would let his daughter have at least one victory today, he blinked first. Yang's eyes flashed red again as she leaned closer to him and whispered, "So you up to it, _old man?_ "

That was it, the challenge had been issued. Taiyang let his face fall into a neutral, polite smile as he said, "Always. Go get dressed and grab your gear. Grab mine to while you're up there."

And on that note, Yang practically skipped across the kitchen, into the living room, and up the stairs to get ready. He couldn't help but to shake his head as he rose from his chair and started to stretch the stiffness out of his muscles. He turned back to the doorway to take one last look at it, saying to himself, "Today won't be so bad after all."

/

Hoped you're enjoying yourself so far, and if you have the time, please leave a review I appreciate any and all constructive criticism I can get, for it helps me put out higher quality stories for ya'll to enjoy. Once again, please and thank you.

Did some minor editing (again) and fix a few grammar errors (again again), so this chapter should be done. Fingers crossed. Anyhow, enjoy.

Also, thank you emiya-excalibur, Lord Jaric, and…Guest for the reviews. They really have help me flesh out this story better.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: Perspective

Perspective is an odd phenomena, in that it can cause two people observing the same event to come to very different, and often times conflicting, conclusions. Like how an item could be amongst the most precious of treasures to one person, and complete garbage to another. Or a madman wielding a massive scythe trying to murder a small teenage girl is actually a master and his student having friendly, if overly aggressive training session. This second, oddly specific scenario is what the occasional passer-by is treated to when they witness the conflict in the field below them, as the teacher/madman rains down punishment on his student/murder victim.

"WOULD YOU…JUST…HIT ME…ALREADY!"Qrow bellowed at Ruby. It's not like she trying to avoid hitting her uncle, on the contrary, she was attempting her best to get in close enough to strike. The issue with this, however, is that he was swinging his weapon with such speed and precision that she could barely avoid his own strikes, let alone launch a counterattack. And he was swinging his weapon far faster than he had any right to be given its sheer mass. But she didn't have time to ponder on how many laws of physics he was breaking at this very moment because she needed to force an opening now or risk being backed into a corner with no escape.

Her wish was seeming granted when she was able to bluff him with a right feint, and after ducking a wide swing right she moved in to launch an assault on his now exposed left side. What she didn't factor was him letting go off his weapon so he could drill his left elbow into her stomach, knocking the wind out of her. Before she had a chance to recover, he had gotten both of his hands on the center of the shaft of her scythe, and with one quick counter-clockwise twist he sent her skimming over the ground and crashing into a small boulder across the field. She took a moment to gather her bearings before she stumbled gingerly to her feet, looking over to see him swing around her weapon like he was playing with it.

"Man, this thing is light. It almost feels like a toy," he said to himself as he continued to swing it around so he could get a feel for it. Ruby, incensed that he would dare compare her sweetheart to a mere toy, shouted at him, "That's _**mine!**_ Give it back!"

"If ya want it, then ya gonna have to come and take it short-stuff!" he shouted back. He was looking the weapon over and fiddling with a few parts, like he was trying to find something. He looked back up at her and shouted again, "Hey! How's this thing switch into rifle mode again?!"

"Oh, you hold down the release switch on the left and…" she began, gesturing with her hands on how to switch it over, but he figured it out the moment she mention the release switched. He gave her a thumps up and shouted, "Thank you!"

"No problem!" she shouted back to him, only now just realizing the mistake she made. Letting out a small squeaky noise, she dove behind the boulder as he started firing in her direction.

"Why do I do dumb things," she chastised herself, banging the back of her head against the boulder. A moment later, a shot landed mere inches from her head, causing her to let out another squeak as she huddled down further. She started to say to herself, "Think, Ruby, think."

 _Fighting is all about creating opportunities and capitalizing on them. It doesn't matter who is the strongest, or the fastest, or who has the best gear if none of that can keep you alive._

Reciting these words of wisdom from her father, she peered from behind the boulder to assess her situation to see if she could create any opportunities. Qrow was moving at a steady pace towards her position, keeping the rate of fire up just enough to keep her pinned down. He never retrieved his weapon though, so if she could find a way to retake her scythe she could turn the tide of this match in an instance, but the million lien question was how. She ducked behind the boulder again to take another look around her position, hoping she could find something useful.

"Let's see; chunks of rock, a few leafs, I think a pine cone… nope, that's an acorn…" she said to herself before being interrupted by a shot blowing another part off her hiding spot, "more chunks of rock, aaaaannd bits of hot lead and metal… Yep, I'm doomed."

"Yo Ruby, if we're playing hide and seek now I think I've already won. Call me crazy, but I just have this crazy feeling that I know exactly where you're at," he said, stopping fifteen feet from the boulder he was using as a bullet catcher. He waited to see if Ruby would out herself, and when she didn't appear in front of him he started humming. The tune he was humming caused the alarm bells in her head to go off, because when he finished that particular tune it meant he was going to end the fight. Gripping the hem of her cape, she looked around frantically hoping to spot something, anything to help her out of her current situation. She was about to resign herself to her fate until she looked at the cape in her hands again, and suddenly she felt the small light of inspiration shine down on her. She unfastened the cape quickly and held it at the ready as she assumed a crouched position. She could feel every muscle in her body tighten as she waited for the exact moment to strike, knowing she would only get one chance at it.

Meanwhile, he had stopped humming. He waited a few seconds longer to see if she would come from behind the boulder on her own accord.

"Welp, I guess thi…" he began, but was interrupted by a flash of red springing out from behind the boulder. Focusing his fire on it, he didn't see her darting out from the other side of the boulder and towards him. By the time he did notice he was shooting at her cape, she had already gotten her hands around her own weapon. Before he had a chance to react, she had planted both of her feet into his chest and sprung off of him into the air with her weapon firmly in her possession again. Wasting no time or the opportunity, she quickly opened fire on him while he was rushing to get back to his own scythe, scoring a few good shots before he retrieved his weapon and starting deflecting the incoming fire.

"Whoa, awesome! Not bad kiddo, not bad!" he shouted, practically beaming.

"Thank you!" she shouted back as she landed, assuming a defensive stance as she took aim at him again. She wasn't quite sure on how she was to tackle this part; he would dodge or deflect just about any shot she could make from here, and she would be heading into a spinning metal death trap of death if she decided to charge him. All in all, she didn't have much in the way of options at the moment.

"Soooo, you gonna attack or do I have to come over there myself?!" he shouted. She took a moment to weigh her options, finally deciding that her best bet was to remain on the defensive and launch a counterattack when she forced an opening. She looked her uncle dead in the eyes and motion for him to bring it on, causing his face to split into one of his wild, slightly psychotic smirks. Heaving the gigantic scythe over his shoulders, he shouted back at her with barely restrained glee, "Alright! Be over there in a sec!"

And with that he began a slow, purposeful march towards her. A favor tactic of his; used to psyche her out and eventually causing her to panic and slip up. Overall, it was a highly effective tactic that had worked countless times before.

"I'm ready for it this time," she whispered under her breath. She could feel his gaze bearing down on her, looking for any sign of weakness he could exploit, but she offered him none. She kept her breathing steady as he approached, tensing her muscles enough to react at a moment's notice once he was within striking range.

"Tell me, are you trying to glare me to death or can you shoot lasers out of your eyes now?" he asked in a mocking manner, hoping to get a rise out of her. No dice. His eyes flashed red for a second as he lifted his scythe from his shoulder and started to twirl it around idly before bringing it to a rest with the back of the blade touching the ground. He locked eyes with her and said, "Color me impressed. When did you grow a…"

She could feel the wind from the blade on her face as she avoided his swing by mere inches, stepping to left and responded by shooting him in his exposed ribs. She scored a direct hit, causing him to stagger and leaving his back wide open for an all-out assault. Quickly switching to over to scythe mode, she was about to lay into him when she felt the wind get knock out of her a second time. The hilt of his weapon landed right into her solar plexus, followed up by him swinging his weapon around to bring the back of the scythe smashing right between her shoulder blades and sending her face first into the ground. Disoriented and out of breath, she didn't even bother trying to make a half-hearted effort to continue the fight. She felt herself being turned over unto her back, and soon was gazing up at her uncle, who looked a bit concerned.

"You ok…um, relatively speaking," he asked. Still breathing in short, ragged burst, all she could do was nod her head. In all honesty, if he hadn't included the relatively bit she might have found the energy to scream out **HELL NO!**

"And wild shot in the dark, but I think were done here aren't we?" he asked again, knowing full well and good that he wasn't going to continue, but felt it best to at least let her think she had a choice. Thankful, she shook her head. He offered her a hand up and help stabilized her once she got on her feet.

"Is…is the world… sup…pose to be…all spin…spinny like?" she asked in between breaths, her head lolling in a semi-circle pattern. He chuckled a little before replying, "Yeah, world always been spinning. How ya think we have seasons?"

"Oh…good. For a second…I thought I had… had a problem," she said. Never the one to miss the opportunity to act like a smartass, he quipped, "Oh no, you still have a problem. I think some of your brain cells got knocked loose."

Oh…Is that bad?" she asked, still not quite on the same planet as he was. Unable to help himself, he replied, "Not really in your case. Just some permanent brain damage is all."

"What?! But I like my brain," she whined.

"I'm just messing with ya, your fine," he said as he leaned down to look her in the eyes, "you are looking a little glassy-eyed though. Which means it's time to go take a seat."

They began walking back to the tree where they had set up their resting spot. Well, Ruby more or less stumbled back while Qrow kept a hand on her back, ready to catch her if need be. Once they got back to their spot she collapsed onto the blanket while he was trying to find his flask. Once he found it, he drained it of all of its contents and sat down next to Ruby, who was currently sprawled out on top of the blanket. Grabbing his paperwork, he leaned back against the tree to start filling out the student evaluation form.

"Let's see; Physical…that's not my job so we'll just go off the one from your last form, it wasn't that long ago anyways," He said as he flipped over to the next page, "Fitness… The only real difference is that your stamina improve tremendously. How'd you manage that?"

"Oh, me and Yang started running the trails with heavy packs on," she said as she flopped over on to her back. He shrugged his shoulders and jolted down the information, "That works. Anyways, mental evaluation. You haven't felt the urge to go on a murderous rampage recently, have you?"

"Not recently, no," she said.

"Good enough for me. Moving along… weapon inspection… damn thing looks like it just came out of the workshop… Technique… exceptional considering the weapon… The hell is field expeditions still doing in here?! We haven't done those since I've started there! They're all handled by… whatever. I swear Signal has a vendetta against trees…." He rambled on as he moved through the evaluation. She looked at the form and asked, "Soooo, why are we using Signal's evaluation form again? Is it really necessary, considering that I'm not even student there anymore?"

"Listen here short-stuff," he began, narrowing his eyes as he pointed his pen at her," Until you step on that airship tomorrow morning you are still my student, got that?"

"Okokokok, didn't mean any offense Mr. Branwen sir," She said. He gave her a light tap on head with his pen and said," There is only a few things I take seriously in life, and being a teacher is one of them. Also, it's Uncle Qrow when we're not in school. Cut me some slack, I'm not that much of a hardass."

"Got it Uncle Qrow sir," she said, giving him an over enthusiastic salute. He tapped her on the head with his pen again and said, "Good girl. So for the live combat portion…Using your cape for a distraction was quite impressive. A good huntress uses everything at her disposal to gain the upper hand over her prey, so excellent job there."

"Heh heh, thanks," she said, giggling a bit. He tapped her on the head a bit harder this time and said, "I was still able to take your weapon though. Care to explain how a huntress without her weapon is supposed to, I don't know, STAY ALIVE?!"

"W…Well, a weapon is an extension of the hunter and/or huntress, so really our entire bodies are weapons in of themselves," she said nervously. Qrow flashed that wicked smile of his as he said, "So you have been paying attention in class. Very good. But tell me Ruby, how is your unarmed combat?"

"Deeeeeeceeeennnt," she said slowly, avoiding direct eye contact with him in hopes he wouldn't press for a more definite answer. Surprising enough, this didn't really work on him.

"Deeeeeeceeeennnt, huh? Does that mean you're capable of engaging an opponent without your weapon, or you know just enough to kick someone in the jewels and run away?" he asked. She bit her bottom lip and asked, "Um, would I get points docked if I said option two?"

"How is it you don't…You live with _**TWO**_ hand-to-hand specialists! You've had to wrestle around with them at least," he said, reaching up to massage the corners of his eyes.

"Well yeah, but it's not like I ever win," she said, reaching over to grab her scythe. She unfolded it with a flourish and held it up to examine it, turning it to look at her reflection in the blade. She stared at her reflection intently, wondering if she was really ready to attend Beacon. When Professor Ozpin handed her the form and told her that as long as her dad signed off on it that she would be allowed to attend his school, she was so far up on cloud nine that she didn't think about if she was ready or not. Even when her dad signed off on it and she dashed off to Qrow's for last minute training she didn't consider if she deserved to be there. She never paid it so much as a passing thought until this moment, now that she was being evaluated. She thought that she already passed an evaluation of some sort last night when Ozpin accepted her into the academy, but now…

"Will this affect my chances of getting into Beacon," she finally asked, putting her scythe away to look over at her uncle. Not looking up from his paperwork, he shook his head and said, "No. This is just a formality more than anything else."

"Then why…" she began, but was interrupted by Qrow, "Because the majority of students have an exit evaluation before they can apply to any academy in the world, Beacon in your case. Ozpin does have the ultimate say so in the end, and he says you're in. So you're in, starting tomorrow. However, you still need an exit evaluation on file to be fully accepted into an academy; maybe Ozpin took care of it or maybe he didn't. Either way, taking the time to do this now will save a lot of headaches in the future for everybody, just because we love our paperwork oh so much. Following me so far?"

"Yeah," she said as she sat up. He put the evaluation form down before continuing, "With that said, there are reasons we're still doing this, and a few are _actually_ helpful. For starters, your record will follow you from Signal to Beacon, which means that your future instructors will be able to gauge where you're at in your training; like what are your strong areas, what areas need improvement, potential for leadership positions…"

"What?! I could lead my own team?!" she asked, her face lighting up with excitement. He placed a hand on her head and started to tousle her hair, saying, "Yep…Well, it depends on how you do on the entrance field test, which begins the day after you start."

"Wha…another test so soon, why?!" She asked, stunned that she still had more evaluations to go through.

"Well, the main reason is to determine who your partner is, and to an extent, your squad as well," he said, then quickly added, "And before you ask, no I'm not telling you what their entrance evaluation is like. Finding out is part of the fun."

[Fun he says,] Ruby thought, hugging her knees. She thought that busting up some thugs would've been good enough, it certainly seemed good enough for Ozpin at the time, but that would've been too easy. If there was one thing that was drilled into her head, whether it be from Qrow or her dad, that the path of the huntress is never easy, and apparently there were no little breaks here and there either. She was mulling over this while Qrow was reaching for something in the cooler he brought along. She heard what sounded like two bottle tops being popped off, and the next moment he was holding a clear bottle with a strange reddish-orange liquid in it. She looked over to him with a puzzled expression on her face, wondering what she was supposed to do with it. He shook the bottle he was offering to her and said, "Well, you gonna take it or what?"

"What exactly is it?" she asked as she took the bottle, sniffing the top and immediately recoiling at the scent. It was alcohol, so there was question one answered. Question two, why was he offering? She looked at him, then the bottle, then back to him again. Feeling the questions were about to start, he cut her off, "I thought we could celebrate is all. It's an old tradition around here. Plus its strawberry favor…well strawberry-banana, so close enough."

She tilted her head to the side, still not sure what he meant. He let out a sigh and said, "It's something that parents do with their kids before they head off to one of the academies. For past and current reasons, I don't have kids of my own, and the future doesn't look good on that end either. So you and the Firecracker are the closest that I got. I did help quite a bit with raising you two…well, what I mean is that…I dunno… Just thought it was a good idea at the time is all…"

She could honestly say that she never saw her uncle go red in the face until now…well, excluding when large amounts of alcohol were involved. It was a unique experience to say the least. She looked at the bottle again and said, "I kinda-sorta get what you mean. So, ummm, is there steps to this or just start drinking?"

"Well, you don't have to drink it if ya don't want to," he said. She shook her head, motioning for him to continue. He took a moment to think, then said, "Right…well, really the only special thing we do is clink the bottles together, and, well, start drinking. Not too complicated, yeah?"

"Not really," she said, holding the bottle in front of her. He clinked his bottle against hers and said, "Cheers Ruby."

"Umm, cheers Uncle Qrow," she finished, watching him take a large swig of his bottle. She opted for a much more modest swig, which was a wise decision considering that she wasn't really used to the taste of booze of any kind. Qrow looked over to see that his niece's face was contorted in such a way to suggest she instantly regretted what she just did. Scratching the back of his head, he asked, "I'm guessing you're not a fan of it?"

She wasn't sure if it was horrible or just not to her liking. It would've been pretty good if it was just the fruity taste, but she couldn't stand the bitter alcohol taste that was causing a slight burning sensation on the sides of her tongue. She managed to finally swallow the liquid down before letting out a barely audible sound of disgust. She gave the bottle a good hard stare, trying to figure out what exactly was in it, which was probably something she should have done when he handed it to her. The label said that it was a strawberry-banana flavored wine cooler, like he said it was, with an ABV of 4 percent, whatever that meant. She thought about handing the bottle back to him, but considering he seemed rather adamant about engaging in this tradition with her she felt that she could at least manage another drink of it. Besides, it could've been the shock of tasting alcohol for the first time, and that it might be better after the second drink. So she took another modest swig out of the bottle…

"Done," she said after she choked down the second drink. She handed the bottle back to him while hanging her head, uttering, "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it," he said, finishing off his bottle before taking Ruby's. He laughed a bit before saying, "Some traditions are overrated anyhow. Plus, more for me so nothing to be sorry about."

She could feel a smile spreading across her face, grateful that he wasn't disappointed. She gave it an honest effort but she was never fond of the smell of booze, and now she could say she didn't care much for the taste of it either. And like he said, it meant more for him. So she opted to sit there silently and enjoy the cool breeze that was currently sweeping the area while she took in the day around her. It was what one would call a picturesque kind of day; a few clouds floating listlessly across the deep, royal blue skies while the sun provided a warm, lively glow to the world below. It was the kind of day were one could take a moment to stop and reflect on their current situation in life.

For Ruby, it was how one night could change everything in the blink of an eye. She usually went to the mainland to purchase some reading material whenever she had the extra liens, and the only reason she was in 'From Dust til Dawn' shop was because they were offering a buy two, get two free special in the back for magazines. And out of all the dust shops in Vale, that gang hit up that particular shop at that particular time.

So many ifs that night; if she had gone to her usual place instead, if she didn't take so long to browse around, if she had made her purchases first instead of getting something to eat, and many more ifs. And if just one of those 'ifs' hadn't taken place, she wouldn't be heading off to Beacon tomorrow. But as luck or faith would have it, she was in the exact right place at the exact right time and did the exact right thing.

Everything was a blur after meeting with Professor Ozpin. She didn't know how she got off the mainland and back to her home on Patch as fast as she did, and she was so excited about what had happen that she couldn't form a coherent sentence when she tried to tell her father the great news. After what seemed like an eternity, she was finally able to get it out that she was going to Beacon, as long as he signed off on it. In retrospect, the conversation would have gone a lot faster if she had remembered to show him the permission form first. Regardless, when he held the paper in his hands and looked from it to Ruby she already knew; the look in his eyes, the smile on his face, and the resulting hug afterwards gave her the answer. She couldn't quite remember what they talked about during that moment because they both were blabbering, and for all she knew it was gibberish. She remembered getting her height measured and asking if she could go do some last minute training with Qrow, and a quick hug and kiss later she was dashing towards her uncle's house. She had to find the spare key when she got there because he had the door locked, and when she burst through the door at full speed she launched herself at the couch where her uncle was siting, landing between him and some strange lady she never met before. She was really pretty and smelt nice. Which reminded her…

"Sorry I interrupted you and your friend." Ruby said, her face turning a slight shade of red. Qrow waved it off, "Eh, its fine. I'm over it. I already moved the spare key… Out of curiosity, why didn't you call first?"

"Well, I just kinda-sorta-maybe…" She began, but he cut her off, "There's no kinda-sorta-maybe here, you either did or you didn't. And considering that my phone didn't say I had any miss calls or texts from Pipsqueak, I pretty sure about what you didn't do."

"Sorry…" She said, hanging her head again. He chuckled and responded, "Just give me a heads up next time. And don't worry, she wasn't angry at you. Crystal's a real sweetheart like that."

"Yeah, she was really nice to me…considering I almost used her for a landing pad," Ruby said as she let out a nervous, meek little laugh. He placed a hand on one of her shoulders and gave her a playful shove, saying, "We really gotta work on your people skills. Anyways, you excited about tomorrow?"

She wasn't entirely sure how to answer that. It should have been a no brainer considering she was looking forward to going to Beacon since before she even started at Signal. But now that it was actually going to be a reality, she couldn't help to think that maybe she might not be ready for this.

"You got something on your mind, so let's hear it," he said, motioning for her to speak up. She tilted her head upwards, looking towards the clouds in hopes that they could help her organize her thoughts. Not able to phrase it any other way, she asked bluntly, "Do you think I'm ready for this?"

"Ruby…I've known Ozpin for a very long time now. He's a good fella, real gentleman, but he doesn't fool around and he especially doesn't like to waste his time. Now, based on what I just told you, do you think he would have met with you last night and allow you to skip two years of training to enroll in Beacon immediately if he wasn't sure you were ready?" Qrow asked.

She shook her head in response, "When you put it that way, I guess not."

"However, the only way you were getting into Beacon is if Tai signed off on that form. Do you think _your dad_ of all people would let you step anywhere near that school if he didn't think you were ready?" He asked.

"No way," she replied without having to think of the answer

"Damn right. Now, I want you to follow me real close on this last one, because this is by far the most important. Last night, I had a friend over; we were gonna have a few drinks and catch up on old times. I already had the evening planned out, but what I didn't plan for was my youngest niece flying through my front door and almost landing on my company…" he said, but was interrupted by her, "I am soooo, soooo sorry about that."

"We're past that now. So, after we sorted out why you were there and you practically begged me for some last minute training, I reschedule with my friend for another night so we could be here. Tell me, would I cancel my prior plans just so I could be out here in this empty field, covered in grim and drenched in sweat, if _**I**_ didn't think you were ready," he asked, pausing to let her answer before deciding he would rather do the honors," I'll go ahead and answer that one for ya: No. Way. In. Hell. I would've tossed your cute little rear outside and told you to bother me another day."

"Right, I get ya…Sorry for screwing up your plans," she said, causing Qrow to once again wave the apology off," Don't worry about it. Anyways, back to you. You have two veteran hunters and the headmaster of one of the most prestigious academies on the planet saying, hey, this kid is pretty good, she earned the right to be here."

"But that's what I mean. I just don't want to disappoint anyone," she said, a glum look spreading across her face.

"Ruby, you were accepted into Beacon. That's a major accomplishment in of itself. The fact that you've made it in two years earlier than most is downright impressive," Qrow said, a genuine smile spreading across his face, "That is something to be proud of. I mean, look at your sister. Awesome fighter, and your dad swears that she's going to be better than him when he was in his prime. I've worked side by side with your old man in those days, and I can tell you right now he was scarier than any Grimm we hunted down. If he is right about that, then your sister could very well be one of those huntresses you read about in your books. Yet you two are starting at the exact same time, and she has two years of training over you. What do you think that says about you?"

"But I can't keep up with Yang," Ruby replied.

Qrow groaned. He wasn't sure where all the self-doubt was coming from or why now, but he reminded himself that she was still a kid. Taking a deep breath, he said, "That's not the point Ruby. Beacon is a _training ground_ for hunters and huntresses. It will have some of the most gifted students studying there, but they are still students. It's for those that are not only highly skilled, but also have great potential as hunters and huntresses. And Ozpin decided that your potential was so high that it would have been a waste for you to stay at Signal for another two years. Any of this getting through that thick skull of yours?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right," she said, brightening up a bit, "Thank you."

"What kind of uncle would I be if I didn't give my partner-in-crime an ego boost every now and again," he said as he tussled her hair, electing a giggle from her. Suddenly, Ruby's stomach let out a loud, ravenous growl that sounded like a hungry predator warning all the small animals in the general vicinity to scramble for cover or be devoured.

"Random guess, but I think you might be hungry," he said. She was about to respond but her stomach beat her to it by sounding off with another growl that was louder than the first one. Suppressing another chuckle, he pulled out his scroll to check the time while thinking about what food options were available when he was hit with an idea.

"Um, who are you calling," she asked.

"Your dad. I figure we could actually have a mini celebration for you and your sis," he replied, looking at his scroll with slightly peeved look, "Come on Tai…pick up your damn phone."

"YANG CAN'T KNOW!" Ruby shouted as she flailed her arms about like a mad woman, startling Qrow.

"WOAH! Calm down kid, can't know…" he began, only to divert his attention back to his scroll, "Oh hey Tai, what's up big guy? Yeah, everything is fine on this end…"

She was frantically waving her hands and making gestures to be quiet about something. Putting two and two together, it finally dawned on Qrow what Ruby was flipping out about, but just to make sure he asked, "Hey Tai, quick question; is a certain someone not supposed to know about a thing and a place with somebody? Ok, making sure is all."

He flashed her a thumps up before continuing with his conversation, "Yeah, anyways, where are you...? We got done with that not too long ago… She definitely made progress. How'd it go on your end...? What, why? Is she alright...? Oh, that'll do it alright… Heh, been awhile since you've bled…Does everything have to be a competition between you two…? Yeah, she's definitely my sister's spawn, that's for sure…Oh yeah, I was wondering if you guys were hungry… No, I called because I wanted to see if you would pay… Did you expect anything less? Anyway, I figured I pick up lunch for everybody… What, a guy can't do something nice for his family every now and again…? No strings man. Your daughter is heading out tomorrow so I thought we could celebrate a little… Just cause I don't bawl like you do doesn't mean I'm not sentimental… Yes you do… Like a few weeks ago when we watched that movie… Ruby's a _fifteen year old girl_ , I expect her to cry at something like that. What I don't expect is a _man in his mid-thirties_ … Please, that was one of cheesiest endings… Me and Yang couldn't stop laughing, that's how bad it was… Look, we're getting off subject here. You want food or not… Ok, I'll get your rabbit food. What about the bottomless pit… one vat of noodles, got it… About forty minutes to an hour…Ok man, sounds good. See ya at your place," Qrow finished, hanging up the phone. He looked over to Ruby with his eyebrows cocked, asking, "So, why can't Yang know again?"

"I wanted to surprise her tomorrow," Ruby replied. He was about to point out that Yang probably knew by now because Taiyang was horrible at keeping secrets, but why rain on her parade. Plus, her sister would still act surprised for Ruby's sake anyhow so it would all work out in the wash. Besides, they had more pressing issues at hand, like obtaining food. Preferably before her stomach launched an open revolt against its master.

"So what do you want?" Qrow asked as he scrolled through his scroll looking for a particular number. Ruby's eyes lit up and a slightly maniacal smile appeared on her face as she asked, "Can we get one of those giant cookie cakes?! Pleasepleaseplease!"

"Yeah, we can do that, it's your day to. But order some actual food to go with it," he said, finally finding the number. She scrunched up her face a bit, trying to figure out what she wanted before deciding, "Can I get a strawberry salad? Extra sweet please."

"Alright sugar fiend, consider it done. In the mean-time," he pointed over to where they left their gear, "Go ahead and pack us up while I place the order."

"Got it Mr. Branwen sir!" she shouted as she dashed over to their resting spot to pack up their belongings. He shook his head, saying, "She knows I hate that…"

Arriving at their resting spot, she began to pack up frantically, shoving every loose item into Qrow's backpack. She was rolling up the blanket when she noticed the evaluation form off to the side. She picked it up and was about to put it into the pack with the rest of the items, but she looked over her shoulder to see that he was preoccupied.

"One little, tiny peak couldn't hurt. Besides, I just want to find out where I'm at in my training," she reasoned as she flipped through the form. Nothing really caught her eye; a checkmark here, a number there, a few comments squeezed in. It had high marks on it, but other than that there was nothing really interesting or something she didn't already know. She was making a spot for it in the pack so it wouldn't get damaged and was about to place it in when she noticed there was some writing on the back. The heading of the section was additional comments, and there was quite a bit written:

 _Ruby has come a long way from when she first started her training five years ago. Back when she became my student, her abilities were so dismal that I would need another form to elaborate on them. Regardless, here work ethic is nothing short of awe inspiring and can only be matched by her desire to learn. Constantly seeking to improve herself, she has pushed herself to her limits and beyond week in and week out, resulting in an individual that is exceptional for her age group. Her combat techniques are unique and varied, allowing her to engage opponents from long range to close quarters. These abilities will also allow her to fill multiple roles on her team. She has shown remarkable ability to formulate plans in high pressure situations (A.K.A thinking on her feet,) with moderate success._

 _My two biggest concerns for Ruby are her physical development and her teamwork. While she is exceptional for her age group, she will still be approximately two years younger than her peers, and a two year age gap is a significant amount of time for adolescents to develop physically. As for the second, she has shown 'loner tendencies.' Not asocial by any means but not an extrovert either, Ruby mainly keeps to herself in class and typically trains alone or occasionally with a teacher. Outside of her immediate family, she has stated she really doesn't have any close friends. However, when paired with her sister (Yang Xiao Long, fellow student at Signal and soon to be student at Beacon Academy) she displays outstanding, if somewhat chaotic teamwork, able to accommodate for her partner to maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses._

 _Overall, Ruby Rose is an excellent candidate to continue her huntress training, and I believe she very well could be a team lead,. Her weaknesses can be glaring at times, but this will push her even harder to make up for them._

 _Post Script: No Ozpin, I ain't building her up because she's my niece, you know me better than that by now. This kid is the real freakin' deal. If I was fifteen years old again, she would kick my ass and probably her father's to._

"Hey! You got everything packed yet?!" Qrow shouted. Ruby snapped from her reading and quickly shoved the form into the backpack before grabbing the cooler as she hurried back towards her uncle. She wasn't sure why, but she could feel the apprehensions about tomorrow being carried away on the gentle breeze, floating away to never bother her again.

"Why are you all smiles and sunshine now? You up to something kid?" he asked half-jokingly as she approached. She slowly shook her head and said, "Nope, just can't wait for tomorrow is all."

"Now that sounds like the Ruby I know," he said as he held out his fist. She bumped knuckles with him before asking, "So what's our mission?"

"Our mission is simple but important; procure rations for ourselves and our teammates and proceed to the rendezvous point," he said, doing his best to keep a straight face as he played along. Clasping her hands together, she exclaimed, "Alright! Ruby Rose and her fearless sidekick Qrow are to begin their mission…Now!"

And with that, she started to dash off but was quickly stopped when he grabbed ahold of one of the straps on the backpack. She looked over her shoulder to see why he stopped her only to notice he was pointing towards the opposite direction of where she was originally heading.

"Hey leader, unless you feel like taking the scenic route we should probably go this way," he said, gesturing towards the general direction of where they should be going. She did a quick about face and said, "I… I knew that. I was just testing you was all. Congrats, you passed! This is why you're my number one sidekick."

"Yaaaaaay, I'm playing second fiddle to a teenager that doesn't even know the difference between her left and right. I have truly hit the pinnacle of my career and everything is all downhill from here," he said monotonously. Ignoring his griping, she started down the correct path, with Qrow following in step behind her.

/

Hoped you're enjoying yourself so far, and if you have the time, please leave a review I appreciate any and all constructive criticism I can get, for it helps me put out higher quality stories for ya'll to enjoy. Once again, please and thank you.

Also, I realized by now I suck at editing. This is the fourth revision and I'm still catching grammar errors. So sorry to all that notice those. And if you haven't notice any yet, this message doesn't exist and you're crazy to think otherwise.


	3. Chapter 3

Sorry it took so long to get this sucker out, but life got in the way. And this chapter was kinda of a pain to…well, if you see the author's notes at the bottom you'll see what I mean. Anyhow, hope you enjoy the story.

Chapter Three: First time for everything

"Left, right, left, feint, elbow, dodge, uppercut," Yang uttered to herself while she was shadowboxing, warming up for the sparring match between her and her father. She felt good about her odds today for she had been working on a strategy for the past few weeks on how to take him down. She knew that there wasn't much of a chance of out muscling him, and there was no way she could ever win through attrition because his endurance was far beyond her own. However, she held a definitive if slight speed advantage and her weapon range was considerably longer than his electro-gloves. So all she needed to do today was keep him at range and dance around him long enough to wear him down before she could move in for the finishing blow. Finally, she was going to score a victory against her old man, and it had been a long time coming as far as she was concerned.

"Hey, you done yet?!" she shouted across the clearing to him as she finished up her routine and started walking towards him.

"Not yet!" Taiyang shouted back. Yang shook her head, giggling a bit as she watched him go through his warm ups. No matter how many times she saw it, she still thought it was funny watching someone as bricky as him practice Tai-Chi. She had to admit though that he looked pretty graceful in his own way. She remembered that he picked it up a few years ago when his doctor recommended it to help with his back and joint pain, and he loved the results so much that he decided to incorporate some of the moves and stances into his own fighting style. Leave it to her father to figure out a way to weaponize his own physical therapy.

"Didn't you use to say that Tai-Chi was too flowery for your tastes?" she asked, stopping a few feet in front of him.

"Used to, but I also used to be an idiot. I have the right to be an idiot every now and again don't I?" he said while finishing up his routine.

"Big difference between having the right and abusing the privilege," she chided as she playfully punched him in the shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah, just get moving," he replied while he made his way to the center of the clearing. As she followed behind him, she noted that it was quite a pretty day; the birds were singing, the stream was gently flowing, and there was even a nice, cool breeze. All in all, a perfect day to one-up the old man. Getting in their positions opposite of each other, she saw that old, annoying expression on his face. It was more subtle than it used to be, but it was still relatively easy to spot.

"Ok, which part don't you find _acceptable_ now?" she asked, annoyed that they were still having this ongoing battle. It had been going on for two years already and she hadn't given him an inch, so what he was expecting now was beyond her.

"Look, I'm mostly over it… well, kinda, but just out of curiosity don't you think you need some… I don't know… a bit more… support?" he asked, making an awkward gesture over his chest area.

"They're just fine, thank you very much," she said. He was about to reply when she decided to beat him to the punch, "And before you ask; **no** , they're not in the way, **no** , I don't have any back pain, and **yes** , I'm aware that they are partially exposed. Is there anything else I can answer for you daddy dearest?"

"You know what, forget I ever brought it up," he said, rolling his eyes.

"Good, because the way I see it, you're just stalling for time," she said, pointing at him in an overly dramatic fashion, "Because today's the day I'm taking you down old man."

"Oh, and just how do you plan to do that?" he asked, a slightly sinister smirk spreading across his face.

"I can't tell you now, it'll ruin the surprise," Yang replied, tilting her head to the side, "Don't you like surprises?"

"As a matter of fact I do. Actually, I have a surprise for you to…Wanna hear it?" he asked. Curious as to where this was going, she made a gesture for him to continue.

"I've been doing a lot of thinking recently, Yang. I've come to accept that you are not a little girl anymore, but a young woman, and you deserve to be treated as such. So from here on out, I won't question how you dress anymore. Also…" he paused for a moment as he brought one of his gloves up for Yang to see as he fiddled with it, causing sparks to shoot out of it, "I won't be fighting with kid gloves on anymore."

"Oh, like I'm supposed to be impressed?" Yang asked, trying her best to play off the nervousness starting to creep into her voice. It didn't help that he flashed one of his infuriating 'I know something you don't' smirks.

"Hey honey, you know that one show you and your sister used to watch all the time? You know, the one with the guys that scream a lot and their hair turns spikey and golden?" he asked as he cupped his hands together to create a small, round ball of electricity. She nodded, watching the sparks shoot out from around the ball. With one fluid motion, he launched the orb so quickly that she only felt it whiz pasted her head and heard it explode behind her. She turned around to see that it sent dirt and rock flying everywhere, and it left a sizable scorch mark to boot.

[Welp, I'm screwed,] Yang thought. This was new information that didn't fit into her prior planning. She knew that he was always going easy on her, but how much was he holding back until now? Her theory that she could outrange him was in serious doubt, so did that mean he was faster than her too? She quickly shook the doubt from her head, trying to not psych herself out. Regardless of what he did, she was still going to hold to the plan and hope that her calculations weren't too far off. He must have sensed her apprehensions because he said, tauntingly, "Hope I didn't spook you too badly."

"No way! There is now way I'm letting you psyche me out! I know you're game!" she exclaimed. She was not letting her father have the pleasure of winning the mental game against her.

"We'll see," he said. They both brought their gloves up to bump before squaring off. Not wasting any time, Yang started off the match by throwing a quick two shot combo while trying to create some distance between herself and him. He easily dodged both shots and retaliated by shooting off several bolts to prevent her from moving around while he closed the gap between them. One of the larger bolts managed to strike her in one of her legs, slowing her down just long enough for him to get her into a hold.

"So, how's playing keep away working out for ya?" he asked when he finished locking his hands behind her upper back and neck.

" **Bite me** ," Yang replied with a growl, still struggling to break his lock.

"Eh, I have a better idea," he said, smashing his knee into her head. He went for a second strike but was stopped at the last second by Yang firing off a blast into his knee and quickly followed by blasting him in the stomach with enough force to release his hold on her. Capitalizing on the opportunity, she launched a jab-cross combo to his stomach and finished up with a left hook to his ribs before attempting to circle behind him. Recovering from the brief assault, he pivoted to launch an elbow followed up by a series of jabs, causing her to backpedal. Stepping forward, he started firing off multiple combinations of strikes that she barely had time to dodge or block as she kept trying to back away. She was looking for an opening to counterattack, and if one didn't present itself soon she would be backed into a corner or worse. Sure enough, his next strike was actually a feint that she didn't foresee, and the results were her arms being flung to the sides, leaving her torso and, more importantly, her head exposed. Charging up his gloves, he clapped his hands together mere inches from her face, causing a deafening noise and blinding her.

" **GRRRAWW**!" Yang howled in pain, flailing her fists wildly in front of her, hoping it would be enough to fend him off until she regain her sight and hearing. As the world started to come back into focus around her, she realized that he was nowhere to be found. Still shaking off the effects of the last attack as she tried to spot him through the haze of her vision, she had only enough time to regret not turning around as she felt the tap on her shoulder. He locked both of his arms around her waist and lifted her over his head, sending her crashing into the ground. Before she had a chance to get into a guard positon he already negotiated himself into a high full mount.

"Know why I like german suplexes? They solve problems," he said, that annoying grin of his plastered all over his face. Reaching down, he grabbed Yang by the nose and said, "Look, I got yer nose."

Yang wiggled her head furiously, infuriated that he was mocking her now. He let go of her nose and said with a hint of faux disappointment, "Awww, but you used to like this game as a kid."

Glaring and growling, she now had every intention of ripping his arm off and beating him to death with it when she got out of this. Or if she got out of this, considering he had her pinned with no way for her to counter. Tai sat straight up as he brought both his arms back, ready to end it.

"It's a bit of a shame it has to en…" he began, only to be interrupted by Yang hooking her legs around his arms and flinging him off of her. Before she had a chance to hop to her feet, he was already diving back at her. Prepared this time, she grabbed his right arm and locked both her legs behind his head, catching him in a triangle choke. If she couldn't knock him out, asphyxiation was a good second option. She felt herself being lifted into the air, and then slammed hard into the ground.

"I'm not letting go!" she shouted as she was lifted into the air a second time before being slammed with enough force that a small crater was created beneath her. She could feel his strength slipping, but she only had to hold on for a little longer.

Lifting her into the air a third time, he charged up both his gloves and pressed them against her before slamming her into the ground with enough force and electrical charge to stun her, causing her to finally release her hold on him. He stumbled backwards, gasping for air and fighting to stay on his feet. Recovering from being electro-bombed, Yang sprung to her feet and sprinted towards him, sensing this might be her only opportunity to bring him down. She peppered him with shot after shot until she was within striking range of him, then switched to hammering his stomach and ribs before he could regain his breath. Struggling to counter her onslaught, he tried to use his electric clap again but was stopped mid motion and received an uppercut for his troubles. She sent him reeling backwards before finishing up her offensive by kicking him in the chest, sending him flying back several meters.

"WOOHOO! YEAH!" Yang cheered, celebrating what she surely thought was her first victory.

Taiyang, for his part, had managed to pick himself up off the ground and regain most of his breath. He looked over to see his daughter was jumping around like a twit and had her back to him. He was contemplating hitting her with an arc of electricity to catch her attention, but instead opted to walk up right behind her and waited to see if she would notice. About forty or so seconds later, she had managed to dance around only to realize that he was standing a few feet from her. Letting out a yelp, she jumped back and yelled, "How long have you been standing back there you creeper?!"

"Long enough to realize you dance just like your sister," he said, then added, "So like a dork, essentially."

"Hey now, my dancing is stellar thank you very much…it's just not appropriate considering present location and company," she said. Looking her father over, she felt a wicked grin spread across her face when she spotted the blood on his forehead. Pointing towards her own forehead, it took him a moment to catch on before he brought his forearm up to wipe whatever it was off.

"I think you're about ready to quit," she said, her grin spreading further across her face. He was somewhat shocked by what he saw, looking up to Yang and back to his forearm again.

"When is the last time I bled?" he whispered to himself while he looked from his forearm to her to his forearm again, racking his memories to figure out when.

"Um dad, are you ok?" she asked. He looked up at her with an expression that was equal parts beaming and tranquil. It was quite disarming to say to least, and she felt like she would've been more comfortable with him yelling at her.

"I'm fine, just thinking about time again is all," he said. Shaking his head and chuckling to himself, he squared up against her and said, "I really will have to start treating you like an adult."

"Wh…YEAH! That's right! You better if you want to walk outta here under your power," she asserted, squaring up as well. She wasn't sure why, but that look of Zen on her father's face was unnerving her. She had been in shouting matches with him and seen him angry enough it look like he would flip a table, but this was… she didn't know how to describe it. All she could say it definitely was creeping her out.

"Yang," he said, snapping Yang back to reality. She nodded, waiting to hear what he had to say.

"Don't hold anything back. I want you to hit me with everything you got," he said. Just like his expression, his voice didn't match the usual him either. It was calm and steady, like each word was carefully considered right before he spoke it. It was just as unnerving. She shook it off, believing it to be another way for him to psyche her out. She donned a cocky smirk and said, "I planned to. Like I said before, today's the day you're going down."

With that she jumped back and used the blasts from her gauntlets to propel herself upward to start an aerial attack. She blasted him with shot after shot, but the way he was moving it looked like most of the shots weren't connecting, and what ones managed to connect caused sparks to shoot into the air. She noticed that he had created another ball of electricity in his hands as he weaved in and out of her shots. She didn't have long to wonder what his next move was when he shot the ball towards her, forcing her to plunge to the ground to avoid it. She had just turned her attention back to him when she felt the orb whizz past her head before it made another attempt to strike her. She noticed while she was evading the annoying little ball that her father was moving his left arm in an erratic pattern, reasoning that he had a degree of control over the electric orb.

"Neat trick, but is that all you can do," she asked as she causally evaded the ball again. He shook his head slightly and brought up his other arm. With a few movements of both arms he split the ball into twelve smaller, but no less deadly looking orbs. Letting out a small yelp, she started scrambling like a squirrel that was fleeing from every cat within a one mile radius to avoid the menacing little orbs. It didn't help that even though this technique seemed to require the use of both of his arms he was still free to move around, making it that much more difficult to close in and counterattack. And every time she tried to get to the outside, the orbs would move to box her in to keep her confined to a relatively small area. Essentially, she was trapped in close quarters with him until the orbs either ran out of power or she forced him to disperse them. Neither was a particularly good option, but closing in and attacking him seemed like the better of the two. She made a beeline towards him as she dodged the psychotic little spheres, peppering him with a few shots before she got within striking range.

"YOU'RE MINE!" Yang roared as she attempted to toss him to the ground. However, she had telegraphed her intentions so clearly that it was a simple matter for Taiyang to dodge her attack and trip her up to send her tumbling to the ground. She had managed to recover in time to turn around to see that the electric orbs were barreling towards her. With no time to dodge the incoming barrage, she braced herself for impact as she was bombarded by all twelve of the orbs. It felt like every muscle in her body was about to give out as each orb slammed into her, only having a fraction of a second to re-brace as the next one struck. She attempted to resume her attack after the last of the orbs struck, but was caught by surprise when he was able to launch a flying knee to her stomach that was followed up with an electric palm strike to the chest that sent her tumbling to the ground again.

"Need a hand up?" he asked as he stood over top of her. She was shocked when she looked up at him to see that he showed no signs of fatigue. Even with his clothes being covered in dirt and sweat, you wouldn't be able to tell if he was in the middle of a training session or had just finished some light gardening, whereas Yang was panting heavily and could feel the muscles in her body screaming at her to stop right now. To top it all off, he was still wearing that tranquil smile from earlier. It had unnerved her before, but now it was outright infuriating to look at. Feeling her temper get the better of her, she let out an earth-shattering roar as her semblance activated.

"You know, for future reference a simple 'no' will more than suffice," he said, jumping back to assume a defensive stance. Frustrated at his nonchalant attitude and lack of damage done to him, she charged him. Making no attempt to dodge or block any of the bolts that were fired her way, she now planned on absorbing as much damage as possible before unleashing all of the pent up kinetic energy right back at him and hoped it would be enough to knock him unconscious.

It was Taiyang's turn to play keep away, evading Yang's attempts to close in while firing off bolts that were gradually wearing her down. He could have kept that strategy up until collapsed from exhaustion, but she had managed to score a lucky double blast to his left knee, causing it to buckle and keeping him in place long enough for her to get within striking range. Once within range she started raining down punishment on him, hitting hard and fast enough that he was force to take the majority of the blows because he didn't have time to evade. At this rate he would be forced to step his game up or risk falling to his own daughter, and he very well couldn't have that.

Yang continued to pummel him with everything she had plus the stored up energy she had absorbed from him. One good final shot and he would be down for the count. Figuring it was now or never, she finished up her assault with a roundhouse kick to neck, only to immediately be blown back by a surge of energy coursing through the air. Recovering quickly, she looked over to see what trick he had pulled out of his sleeve this time and took a step back in surprise.

"Damn that hurt like hell," he said while rubbing his neck. There were what looked like sparks of electric shooting throughout the air around him with no identifiable source as to where they would be coming from. It took her a moment to realize that he had activated his semblance. She had only seen it one time before, and that was long ago when he was explaining to her how her own semblance worked. It was similar to her own, but whereas she stored up excess kinetic energy to redirect it at her opponents, his allowed him to disperse the energy into the air around him.

"Alright, now it's getting pretty fun, don't cha think?" he asked. She didn't know if he was being sarcastic or sincere, but that mattered little for she was at a lost on what to do next. She had heard stories from Qrow about her father taking obscene amounts of punishment and if even a small handful of those stories were actually true, then she didn't stand a chance against him now. She simply didn't have the firepower or even the stamina to faze him at this point. Sensing her hesitation, Taiyang's face fell into a scowl and he said, "Right as it starts getting good you lose your nerve…. I should feel ashamed of myself for raising such a coward."

Whatever hesitation she felt had evaporated into pure rage after those words. Charging forward, she tried hitting him with series of wild haymakers, but he was quick enough to grab both of her arms before she had the chance to.

"That was stup…" he started to say, only to be interrupted by Yang head-butting him. He was dazed long enough that she was able to launch a second one, causing him to loosen his grip on her arms so that she could free herself. She had given up on any form of strategy at this point, instead opting to hammer away at him until either one of them hit the ground and stayed there.

"WHOSE…STUPID NOW…. **OLD MAN**?!" Yang bellowed as she continued her relentless attack on Taiyang, causing sparks to fly and crackle throughout the air around them. Even with his semblance up it appeared that she actually had him on the ropes, but appearances have a way of deceiving. He ducked one of her wayward punches and responded by turning her head into a speedbag as he unleashed a barrage of jabs, finishing up with brutal backhand that spun her around and expose her back to him. Rushing forwards, he wrenched and locked one arm behind her back as he charged up his other hand.

"Still you," he whispered to her before hitting her with a palm strike that sent her flying across the clearing. She bounced off the ground multiple times before crashing into a tree on the edge of the forest, halting her flight and sending her face first into the dirt. She laid there for a minute so she could reevaluate her current situation on just how screwed she was.

[On scale of zero to ten, I'm definitely in the eight and a half to nine point range by now,] she thought to herself. If it wasn't for her pride getting the better of her she would have seriously consider laying there till the match was over. But instead she struggled to pick herself up off the ground, finally stabilizing herself so she could stand on her feet. She looked over to see that her father was already half way to her position, stopping when he saw that she could stand under her own power. He pointed towards the corner of his lips in a way that suggested that Yang might want to check her mouth. She dapped a finger on the corner of her lips and turned her finger over to look at it to see that she was bleeding.

"I think you're ready to quit," he said, a look of triumph adorning his face. It was true, she was in no shape to continue. Most of her strength was drained and she was still breathing heavily. But he should've know by now that she wasn't going down without a fight. She used her middle finger to wipe the blood from her lips before raising it up against him and saying, "Why don't you come over here and make me quit, _Taiyang_."

Taiyang let out a low sigh and shook his head. Cupping his hands together, he charged up his gloves before slowly separating them vertically, producing a large and menacing sphere that was shooting out arcs of electricity everywhere. He couldn't help but to smile at the look of defiance on Yang's face as she braced herself for his attack. He shook his head again and whispered to himself, "You're gonna pay for that one honey."

The moment the sphere left his hands it started to fire off arcs of electricity in every which direction, seemingly random at first before she noticed that the arcs were striking in areas around her to keep her confined to relatively tiny area while it hovered in the air above them. It was yet another boxing in technique he had, leaving her no choice but to guard against the inevitable thrashing she was about to be on the receiving end of.

"GOT YA!" Taiyang screamed out as he sent out an electric arc that struck home, sending enough electricity coursing throughout Yang to leave her paralyzed and open to his final assault. The look on her father's face as he got within striking range of her told her that maybe flipping him off wasn't exactly the smartest idea she ever had. He pummeled her so quickly that her brain couldn't register exactly where he was hitting her, all she knew was she was hurting all over and it felt like she was being crushed. She didn't know how much more she could take until he launched a devastating blow to her liver, causing her aura to shatter and sending her to knees.

"Yang!" He'd yelled, kneeling down to make sure she was alright.

"Not gonna throw up, not gonna throw up," she chanted to herself, gripping her abdomen in pain while concentrating on keeping the contents of her stomach in their rightful place. It… didn't work to say the least.

"Welp, that's…ok, just…just get it all out," he said, holding her upright so she wouldn't face plant into what was at one time her breakfast and gingerly rubbing her back to help her along. Several seconds later, she had voided her stomach of all its contents and started to shake violently.

"Finished?" he asked, looking her over to make sure she wasn't about to start another round of heaving. He wasn't sure if she nodded or was shaking that much, but either way there wasn't much sense in continuing. He hoisted her up, slinging one of her arms across his shoulders and wrapping his other around her waist as they slowly made their way to the nearby stream. There was silence between them save for her panting and groaning. Once they reached the stream's edge, he lowered her enough to where she could flop onto the ground without hurting herself further before taking a seat beside her.

"Why do I have this feeling that you might have been deliberately trying to kill me?" she finally asked as she situated herself to sit upright.

"I might have overdone it just a bit, but in all fairness you know how I feel about disrespect….Speaking of which," he said before giving her a quick, sharp slap to the back of the head. She gripped the back of her head in pain as she turned to him and whined, "Why'd you do that for?!"

"Because you gave me the finger, that's why…and before I forget," he paused to deliver another slap to the back of her head, "It's either father, dad, daddy, or in this case sir. Not Taiyang or Tai. Have I made myself clear?"

"Yeah yeah old man, clear as crystal," she said, trying to play the situation off. Unfortunately for her, the look on his face told her he wasn't in the mood for her games. She dropped her shoulders and lowered her head as she said, "Sorry dad…sir."

Taiyang let out a chuckle and said, "I know you are. You got my temper and Raven's competitive streak, and you're still a teenager so I'm not all that surprise. Believe it or not, I was your age once too, and I was just as defiant."

She waved him off, preferring to stare at her reflection in the stream. While she was doing that, he was taking in the sounds of nature around him while going over the sparring session in his head. For what was supposed to be a few friendly rounds quickly turned into one of their most heated matches yet. It was the first time that he had to actually take her seriously as an opponent and put some honest effort into fighting her.

"Yang…good effort out there today. You've improved a lot, quicker than I could've imagined," he said. She scoff at this statement and replied with, "Whatever."

"Alright, what's wrong now?" he asked.

"You keep saying that I'm improving but I never see it. So either you're lying or ' _improved_ ' is a code word for I suck a little less than the last time," she said, turning away from him. He was about to press the issue when he figured out what she was sulking about. She really had improved in a lot of areas over the past year, including her temper, but if there was one fault she would probably never move pass it would be that she was a notorious sore loser. It came with her competitive nature, and he really couldn't blame her. After all, he wasn't too fond of losing either, but she had to understand that she was still in training.

"Hey I got a question for you. When is the last time I used my semblance in one of our sparing matches?" he asked. She shrugged her shoulders in response.

"I can't think of a time, and from the sound of things you can't either," he said. She shrugged her shoulders again. Letting out a small sigh, he continued his questioning, "So if I was a gambling man, I be willing to bet that a lot of those techniques I pulled out today were new to you. Tell me, would I've won that bet?"

"I guess so," she said. Satisfied that he was at least getting a verbal response out of her now, he asked his third question, "Have you ever seen me adjust the power setting that high on my gloves before?"

It was Yang's turn to sigh as she turned around to face him to say, "If you got a point to make, could you please just make it already instead of playing twenty questions."

"The point I'm trying to make is that you are better than I was at that age, but I'm not seventeen anymore. I'm a grown man with almost two decades of experience under my belt," he said.

"You don't say. Geez, I never would have figured that out on my own. Thank you some much for helping me with that little mystery daddy," she replied, the sarcasm practically dripping from her voice.

"Ok, I deserved that one, but hear me out," he began, making sure he had her full attention before continuing, "The training that you've been doing for the past seven years is more than anything I've received as a kid. So I know for a fact that, if by some madness of the space-time continuum, you were to face off against seventeen year old me you would do to him what I did to you. No questions about that. Case in point, I'm about a hundred percent sure that this was the first time your aura shattered on you whereas I already had mine broken like three or four times by your age."

"Wait…what?" Yang asked, confused by what he meant.

"Shattered, smashed, broken, and any other adjective and/or synonym you can think of," Taiyang replied.

"I don't need a grammar lesson," she said as she rubbed her temples to prevent the onset of an anger headache. She stopped for a moment to ask, "What do you mean by shattered? Is it like having your aura drained?"

"Not quite, but they are related," he said, standing up so he could pace around. Yang let out a groan of frustration, knowing full well she was about to be on the receiving end of a classroom style lecture.

"Every time your body takes damage, your aura drains. However, at fifteen percent or below, your aura enters what is unofficially known as the 'shatter point.' Essentially, when you aura is low and you're hit with enough force, it is in danger of breaking entirely. This not only leaves the individual in a near collapsed state and defenseless against fatal blows, but it also can wreak havoc on some semblances. With me so far?" he paused to make sure she was still listening. She nodded and motioned for him to continue.

"Right, so for certain semblances, such as yours and mine, having our aura's break on us can practically be a death sentence. The reason for this is because we can absorb and store kinetic energy in our aura thanks to our semblances. If our aura's are simply drained, the excessive kinetic energy will dissipate, but if the aura shatters, where does all that excess energy go?" he asked at the end and waited patiently for her answer.

"It…gets redirected…to our bodies," she said slowly, unsure if that was the right answer. It sounded right to her though.

"Bingo. The kinetic energy storage space was just smashed and it only has one place to go. So you add that on top of receiving a blow powerful enough to break the aura in the first place, and the damage done all at once is absolutely staggering…I'm kinda surprise you didn't pass out," he said.

"Weeell, I don't remember what happened between getting hit and hitting the ground if that counts," she said, gripping her stomach as she felt another surge of pain by just thinking about it.

"Yeah, sorry bout that bye-the-bye," he said. He took a moment to gather his thought before continuing, "But getting back to the original topic, my technique used to be so poor that my aura shattered on a semi-regular basis. I'd would run in and start flailing like an rabid animal while letting my semblance soak up the damage, and I'm paying the price for it now. Why do you think I have to take meds for this thing?"

He started rapping his fist against his chest where his heart was. Yang looked down at his chest and said, "I thought you said that was because of Ruby and me."

"Eh, you kids are part of the reason. More of you than your sister though," he said, chuckling at the dirty look Yang was giving him. His face fell back into a serious expression before he continued, "In all seriousness though, that's unnecessary damaged done to my body that could have been prevented. And that's just technique you have on younger me. That isn't even touching on conditioning or knowledge of the Grimm. So when I say that you're at a much higher level than me at that age you can trust that because I have the scarring to prove it. So you'll get there, you just need to be patient."

Having finished his impromptu lecture, he sat down beside her again. She was mulling over his words when he started speaking again, "Honestly, I would worry more about being passed up by Ruby instead of passing me up if I was you. You may have two years over her and more natural talent for combat, but she's keeping pace with your age group. Add to the fact that she's a quick study, and you've got competition from the little one."

"Ruby always wanted to be a huntress," Yang began, pausing to go over her thoughts to pick the right words, "but I'm going through with it because it looks like fun. So if she ends up being the better huntress, I could live with that…probably."

"While that may be true, we're talking about who ends up being the better combatant, not the better huntress," he said. Yang flashed a wicked, toothy grin at him before saying, "If that's the case, she better be ready to knock my ass out for that title."

The pair busted out laughing but were quickly interrupted by Taiyang's scrolling going off. He pulled it out to see who was calling him and said to himself, "It's Qrow. Wonder what he wants."

Taiyang hit the accept button and was about to answer when he heard shouting and a general commotion in the background of the call. Alarmed, he shouted into the scroll, "HEY, is everything alright?!"

His shouting had startled Yang enough that she gave him a bewildered look that asked if there was trouble on the other end of the line. He motioned to her that everything was fine when he heard Qrow's voice coming from the scroll. Taiyang turned his attention back to his scroll and said, "Oh hey Qrow, not too much. So I'll just pretend all the noise I heard wasn't anything to worry about. Anyways, what's going on?"

Taiyang turned to look at Yang with a deadpan expression, causing her to shoot him a quizzical look. Without taking his eyes off of her, he said in a flat, monotone voice, "Yes, a certain someone definitely isn't supposed to know about a place and a thing with the person."

It felt like an automatic response when her hand shot up to smack her forehead, amazed that Ruby still thought that she didn't know when she had people like their father guarding her 'secret.' Taiyang shot her a look that said he agreed with her before continuing on with his conversation, "I'm at the clearing with Yang. The one with the stream. We just finished up a _friendly_ sparring match… How'd Ruby do…? Awesome. It went well, up until she threw up… Electric punch to the liver… Yep, but she got in a few good hits. One even drew blood… Yeah, but I got her back for it… Well, think about how your sister was at that age… So, did you want something or are you calling to chit-chat… Why, you paying…? Smartass… Ok, why are you offering…? What's the catch Qrow…? That's uncharacteristically sentimental of you… I _**do not**_ cry that much… Like when…? To be fair, Ruby cried too… What, the ending was sad… You didn't find it heart-rending at all…? Well, in your case it's because you're a drunkard with a sadistic streak… Alright fine. I'll take the usual… Wheel a noodle stand over to the house if you can… What's the ETA…? Yep, sounds like a plan. See ya soon."

"Qrow's paying for lunch huh? What's the catch?" Yang asked the moment Taiyang ended the call.

"Beats me," he replied with a shoulder shrug before adding, "Good to know I'm not the only one that's suspicious. Makes me feel less like a paranoid crazy person."

"The operative word here being _less_ ," she said. She stood up slowly so she could stretch out without aggravating the pain that was still radiating throughout her stomach region. It had dulled considerable, but it was still enough to remind her it was there.

"I can't help but to be a little crazy. Have you met my family? Especially my older daughter." he said. She ignored him, preferring to continue stretching while she went over what he said to her early. Maybe her father was right. She did place first overall in combatives for her graduating class, and during her interview with Ozpin he made the comment that her fighting ability was on par with many of the upperclassmen at Beacon. So she must let all that go to her head to think that she could have matched her father right now. He said that she would get to his level soon enough, but she wondered where exactly his level was. Well, only one way to find out.

"Hey dad, I got a question. What are you like when you're holding nothing back?" Yang asked.

"I see where this is going, and the answer is you're outta your damn mind if you think I'm going to hit you at full strength. Believe it or not, I prefer you alive as opposed to a scorch mark on the ground," he replied.

"No, not I'm me. I wanted to see what you're really capable of…You know, so I can get an idea of where I'm at in my training," she said, hoping that would be a good enough explanation. He let out a short sigh and said, "Fine, give me a hand up and I'll show you."

The moment she helped him to his feet he started scanning the area for something to demonstrate on. Spotting a boulder that was a little over half the size of their house, he pointed at it and asked, "You see that big bastard over there?"

She looked to where he was pointing and nodded. He then pointed to another spot that was closer to them and said, "You stand over there and prepare to be… _shocked_."

Groaning at his lame pun, she made her way to where he pointed as he got into position, having a side view of him and the boulder from where she was standing. She noticed that he slid a vial of dust into each wrist part of his gloves before powering them up. He stretched his arms out as far as he could from his body as he brought his hands together. Sparks were shooting all around his hands as he started to separate them, creating another sphere that was somehow even larger and more menacing than the hovering one he had used early. Once he got it to maximum size, he started to push his hands together to shrink the sphere. In the process of doing this, wild arcs of electricity were flying from the sphere in every which direction, almost as if it was actively protesting being squeezed. The smaller and smaller the sphere got, the more erratic and deadly looking the electrical arcs got as well until he hand managed to clasp his hands together again, stopping all arcs from shooting off. His entire body was shaking as he struggled to keep his hands together while he brought them up to chest height. Taking a deep breath, he pushed his hands forwards and opened them up towards the boulder, releasing a massive arc of electricity.

Before that day, she didn't know that electricity could explode rocks. But now, her ears ringing from a monstrous explosion that the whole island must have heard, she knew it. Slowly un-shielding her eyes to check the damage, it felt like her jaw would hit the ground when she saw that the boulder was gone. Not like he blew up most of it and left a small chunk behind, but there was a smoldering crater where a giant rock used to be. If it wasn't for the debris raining around them, she could've swore that he vaporized the entire thing.

"I THINK I MAY HAVE USED A LITTLE TOO MUCH JUICE! WHAT DO YOU THINK?!" Taiyang shouted at her.

"Definitely still have a long way to go," she said to herself, amazed by the scene before her. So amazed that she didn't notice her father had walked right up beside her.

"WHAAAT?!" He bellowed, startling Yang and almost causing her to tumble to the ground when she jumped back.

"Why are you screaming?!" she shouted back at him.

"OK, IF I'M READING YOUR LIPS RIGHT YOU'RE PROBABLY WONDERING WHY I'M SCREAMING! IF SO, THAT'S BECAUSE I'M A FOOL THAT DIDN'T PACK ANY EAR PROTECTION! BUT IN MY DEFENSE, I DIDN'T KNOW I BE DOING THIS!" He roared at her, completely obvious to the volume of his voice. She made several motions for him to stop talking until he regained his hear.

"ALRI…I mean, alright," he said, finally able to hear himself talk, "So, was that _electrifying_ or what?"

"The one story Qrow told me and Ruby, the one where you blew up an entire herd of Goliaths…that's true, isn't it?" she asked. Taiyang smile and shook his head, saying, "More like an exaggeration. What happened is I hit the alpha with that technique and its head popped off, and the rest of the herd turned tail and fled. Major difference darling."

Her eyes widen and her mouth fell slightly open, astonished that he was so nonchalant about the entire event. She thought back to what Qrow had said a long time ago to her and her sister, about their father being like one of the dragons that you would read about in old stories. Standing here right now and witnessing some of his capabilities, she believed every word of it.

"So, quick question honey," he said, wrapping one arm around Yang's shoulders before looking her directly in the face, "are you gonna flip me off again?"

"N…No, sir," she said. He started laughing and tussling her hair before pushing her forward and saying, "Good girl. Also, its dad, not sir. Come on now, you're making me feel bad."

At that moment his scroll started ringing again. Having a faint idea who it was, he groaned a bit before answering, "Hello, Taiyang Xi… Hello Officer Finley… Woah, you guys could hear that all the way in town…? Um, the best way to describe it would be I electrocuted a boulder until it went kaboom… Why? Because I was training with my oldest daughter… Well, she's heading off to Beacon tomorrow and she wanted me to show her a few moves… I know it isn't the best excuse I've ever came up with, but it's the truth this time… Ok, so what's the damage going to be? Is it a fine, community service, am I going to jail this time, or some combination thereof…? Hey, that works… Ok, that works just fine… Thanks Rocky, you are the best, don't let anyone tell you otherwise… Ok, thanks again. Later."

"How often does that happen," Yang asked. Taiyang face scrunched up his face while he scratched the back of his head, then said, "I have the number saved in my contacts if that tells you anything. That was Rochelle Finley, an old friend from my academy days. She quit the huntress business and moved on to being an officer around here. She's a hardass, but she's done more than enough to keep me and your uncle from going through the legal system. Especially Qrow with all his public drunkenness. Speaking of, she says I owe her drinks every Friday for the next two and a half months for getting me out of this one."

"Oooooh, so this _old friend_ wants to hang out for drinks huh? Is that the polite way people say it nowadays," Yang asked, nudging him in the shoulder. He laughed again and replied, "Not whatcha think kid. For one, she's married. Two, this woman could possibly drink your uncle under the table. So when she says I owe her drinks, she means I would've been better off with the fine."

"Well, while you were busy trying to keep your butt out of jail I came up with another idea…Wanna hear it?" she asked, flashing that wicked smirk of hers.

"Considering how great your last idea went for _me_ , I would just love to hear it," he said, flashing a wicked grin of his own.

"Good man. It's gonna be an hour or so til Ruby and Qrow so up right? And considering those two take their good old sweet time doing anything, I figure we could have a bit more quality father-daughter bonding time," she said. She pointed over to an old hiking trail that they used from time to time and asked, "So I thought why not have a _friendly_ little footrace? How bout it old man? You up for it?"

Taiyang let out a low, raspy groan. If this was the same trail he was thinking of, the one that was seven miles long with a ridiculous amount of brush and rough terrain, then he really didn't want to have any part of it. He turned to look at the trail and asked, "You sure you just don't want to call it a day so we can head back and clean up?"

"Oh, its ok daddy, I understand," she said, far too sweetly for it not to be deliberate, "You probably want to go home and take an afternoon nap. We all reach that age eventually."

"You…You are just a glutton for punishment, you know that," he said as he made his way to the edge of the trail.

"I have to be. Have you met my father? He commits child abuse on a regular basis," she said as she followed behind him. He looked over his shoulder to reply, "More like animal cruelty in your case."

Once they reached the edge of the trail, Taiyang looked over at Yang and said, "We go on my three count." She gave him a quick nod and readied herself for their next match.

"ONE…TWO...," he took off running before he hit the three count. Caught off guard for a brief second, she realized what he had just done and started running after him.

"YOU'RE A LOUSY CHEAT, YOU KNOW THAT?!" She screamed at him.

"AND YOU DIDN'T WAIT FOR MY THREE COUNT!" He screamed back.

/

Author's notes:

Ok, since nobody knows yet (minus any employees at Rooster Teeth that happen to be reading this…0.00008 percent chance of that) what Taiyang's combat abilities are, I had to take some major liberties with the character. I went through multiple articles and videos on both the world of RWBY and influences that it draws from. Please do note that this isn't a comprehensive research analysis by any means but just a quick explanation of my reasoning.

It's stated that semblances are like a manifestation of the aura itself, and that it's exceptionally rare for family members to have the exact same semblance (the Schnee family being an exception due to a rare genetic line.) We have no reason to believe as of now that Yang and Taiyang share the exact same semblance. But, given that Tai trained Yang himself I'm pretty sure they are similar enough.

My take on Tai and Yang's semblances is that they deal with kinetic energy. I know that anger plays a big part in Yang's semblance, but it seems like emotion in general can affect semblances of just about anybody. From what I've seen in the series and how Ruby explains it in season two, that the longer Yang is in a fight, the stronger she gets. Which means the more she gets beat up on the more punishment she can return, I say kinetic energy plays the biggest part in her semblance. There's a very good chance I'm wrong, but I'm flying with this theory for now.

So for Taiyang, I figured that instead of storing kinetic energy and redirecting it (as his daughter does) his semblance deals more with dispersing the energy around him, giving him kind of a tanky vibe. Considering that his fighting style is believed by the fan base to be absolutely brutal (once again, thanks to his older daughter) this type of semblance could potential cast Tai's character as a juggernaut of sorts. Also, this gives some contrasted to Taiyang and Yang that they could potentially invoke the Tiger vs Dragon trope.

A quick and paraphrased explanation from the site on tiger vs. dragon trope: Two spirits so wildly different and yet at the same time similar… the Tiger lunges straight ahead to bulldoze through his opponents (sounds like Yang for sure), while the Dragon is revered for patience and wisdom from which he derives his prowess… They are both Taoist and Buddhist symbols that can represent Yin and Yang (see what I did there)… the Dragon is seen as representing Spirit/Heaven, and the Tiger as Matter/Earth.

This ties in neatly with my next point for Tai's semblance in that his full name can read as _Supreme Sun Dragon_. While the sun can easily invoke images of fire, it is also a heavenly/celestial body, and the most common of the classic elements associated with heaven is lightening. You can see this in many, many ancient mythologies such as Zeus for the Greeks and Lei Gong for the Chinese. Given that he is an older character, most likely in his mid to upper thirties, and a parent on top of that, I can see him being a wiser, more patience version of Yang. Also to keep running with the heavenly theme and tie him to Ruby, wielders of lightening were/ are known to banish evil (or what is considered evil in the culture they come from) and Ruby has a type of evil buster with her silver eyes. While it's hinted she gets this trait from her mother, it does tie back into her father as well as reinforces his theme.

Once again, this isn't a comprehensive research analysis by any means but just a quick explanation of my reasoning. However, if anyone does want a comprehensive research analysis I'd be more than happy to provide one. To me at least, Taiyang is (or I should say has the potential to be) one of the most interesting characters in the entire series, and given that the world of RWBY is crammed full of interesting characters, that is saying something.

Author's gripes:

This chapter, just this chapter. Just all of the research I did to make sure I got as close to cannon as possible for a character that had, as emiya-excalibur put it, less than five minutes of screen time. I forgot how many revisions it went through and how long I've been fiddling with it, but I'm glad to be done with it, minus the invariably editing I'll have to do when I notice a grammar mistake three weeks down the line. But that's just me complaining. Thank you for reading this far. I appreciate it.

As always, hoped you're enjoying yourself so far, and if you have the time please leave a review. I appreciate any and all constructive criticism I can get, for it helps me put out higher quality stories for ya'll to enjoy. Once again, please and thank you.

Also, before I forget, if anyone has any story suggestions, fill free to drop a message and I'll response ASAP.


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